--Famous
and influential American Evangelical Christian
minister and media personality, the Reverend Billy
Graham played a significant part of the growth of
evangelical Christianity in the United States and
in the world in the mid- and late-Twentieth
Century. His "Crusades," huge gatherings of
believing Christians, drew thousands of the
faithful to hear his message, as millions more
audience members participated through the medium of
the television. He is considered one of the best
known Protestant Fundamentalist preachers in
America, with a significant following, and the
unofficial title of Minister to America's
Presidents. He has served as a spiritual advisor to
every U.S. President since Dwight
Eisenhower.

He
became a minister in the Southern Baptist Church in
1939, entered Wheaton College in Illinois and began
preaching in Chicago in the early 1940s. While in
Chicago, he began a radio program in order to reach
more people with his message. Throughout his
career, he deftly used the media to enlarge the
range of his voice and his message. In 1949, he
gained national attention with a preaching campaign
he called a "crusade," in Los Angeles. The
nationwide focus of his newfound publicity was
aided by the desire of newspaper magnate William
Randolph Hearst, who increased his newspaper's
coverage of Graham because of the strong
anti-Communist fervor the young preacher showed in
his sermons and his messages.

After
a three-month long crusade in New York City in
1957, Billy Graham became one of the leaders of the
national Protestant Fundamentalist movement. His
ability to speak to the common man, hearkening back
to his roots in the hills of North Carolina,
enabled him to connect with millions of ordinary
Americans in his long and influential
career.

He
is the author of over 24 best-selling
books.

Education:

--Florida
Bible Institute (Trinity College)-1940 with a
Bachelors in Theology.

--Wheaton
College, Wheaton, IL, --1943 with a Bachelor of
Arts degree in Anthropology.

Accomplishments:

--He
is one of the founders of the journal
Christianity Today.

--Founded
the Billy Graham Evangelical Association
in the 1950s. Billy Graham retired in 2000, and
turned the organization over to his son and
successor, the Reverend Franklin
Graham.